"When the Giants Come to Town..." is my blog intended to chronicle my thoughts on San Francisco Giants baseball. My special interest is in prospects and the farm system, but of course, will comment on all aspects of the San Francisco Giants. I will also comment on baseball in general, particularly from a fantasy baseball perspective. I hope you will find the site informative, and invite you to join in the discussion.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Today had to be one of the more dispiriting losses the Giants have suffered in recent memory. Needing a win to salvage a win in a home series against their most hated rival, and having extra motivation against a pitchers who tried to end the career of one of their players earlier this year, instead of putting up a fight, they rolled over and went belly up. 3 games against the Dodgers in their own crib. Three games in which they never really so much as put up a fight. The starting pitchers looked tired and frustrated. The hitters were inept. The baserunning comically horrendous. Key lines:

Aaron Rowand- 3 for 4, HR(7). BA= .239. You don't think Gamer had a burning desire to to well in this game? What does that say about all the other games where he was 0 for 4 and swinging at slop in the dirt?

Buster Posey 1 for 4, 3 K's. Interesting that the Giants trade Molina when Buster is hitting .182 over his last 10 games. That ought to pretty much shut up anyone who says the Giants never give a struggling rookie a break! It also may mean that the Giants are management is ready to cash in the season and be sellers as we approach the trade deadline. While Molina had been terrible in many ways for a long time, it's not clear that Buster is an immediate upgrade at the position. He is, however, the future. He needs major league AB's and he needs innings behind the plate. The Giants absolutely cannot afford to go into next season without Buster getting those to things in large quantities THIS season.

Jonathan Sanchez- 5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.26. Another lackluster effort by Durty. If the Giants could get a major talent in return for him, I wouldn't be opposed to trading him. He would likely turn into a Cy Young winner the next season though. You just have to start wondering if he's ever going to harness all that talent.

Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. You know things have gotten bad when your closer works the 8'th inning with the team on the losing end of an 8-1 score just to get some work in.

The loss drops the Giants 5.5 games behind division leading Padres who stomped Colorado 13-3 who remained 0.5 games ahead of the Giants, 5 games behind the Padres. With the W, the Dodgers stayed 3 games off the pace. Arizona remained 15.5 games behind with a 4-2 W over the Cardinals.

The Giants now embark no a road trip which starts off with a 4 game series in Colorado, a historic House of Horrors for the G-men. Madison Bumgarner gets the call for the first game which may not be any easier assignment than Boston in AT&T.

As alluded to earlier in the post, the Giants traded Bengie Molina to the Texas Rangers for RP Chris Ray and a PTBNL. Gotta wish Bengie well. He was a good Giant, but his career appears to be virtually done. He may have sacrficed some of that career in his first 2 1/2 years with the team by catching way more innings than he should have. A lot of fans hated him for being the cleanup hitter for so long, but that was way more the team's fault than Bengie's. I think Bengie has a future as a MLB manager. I don't think there would be many players physically challenging him, that's for sure. They might be able to outrun him, but the man is massively strong in the upper body.

Same song second verse, could get better but it's gonna get worse. The Giants dropped game 2 of their home series against The Hated Ones by the same score as in game 1. Matt Cain struggled with his pitch count again and got touched up for 4 runs in 5 IP. Panda made another bonehead play on the basepaths, and the Giants grounded into 2 more DP's. Key lines:

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 4. BA= .274. This one wasn't quite as bad as the gaffe in game 1, but after Panda led off the 6'th with a single, Burrell squirted a 1 out single through the right side and it looked like the Giants might be making a threat. Panda rounded 2'nd like he was going for the extra base, then either thought better of it or was held up by Flannery. Unfortunately that left him in no-man's land and he was nailed by Ehier's throw behind him at 2B. Runners at first and second with 1 out became a runner at first and 2 outs. Probably didn't make much difference as Uribe followed with a GB to 3'rd which forced Burrell at second but it would have been an easy DP had there been less than 2 outs.

Matt Cain- 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 2.93. Cain was better than his last start. He looked really good at times, but seemed to be grooving pitches at others. He again struggled with high pitch counts throwing 105 in just 5 IP, The Dodgers undeniably have very good hitters in their lineup, but Cain just never seems to be himself when he is pitching against them. Vin Scully went on and on about it on the TV broadcast last night speculating that maybe the Dodgers have figured out some pitch tips that other teams haven't. Vinnie tends to repeat himself a lot these days, but he made a big enough deal about it that you have to wonder if he's heard some whisperings from the Dodgers themselves. It sounded like he really admires Cain and might have been trying to help him out in his own way. I have to say, the whole pitch tipping thing is a subject that I'm don't really completely understand, so I don't have an opinion. While Cain has not had much success against the Dodgers, he's never pitched so bad against them that I would be that suspicious of pitch tipping.

Strangely enough, these two losses to the Dodgers haven't been as devastating to the Giants in the standings as one might think because the first place team, the Padres, have lost both nights to Colorado so the Giants remain 4.5 games out of first place. It's just that both LA and Colorado have jumped past leaving them in 4'th place while the Dodgers are now in 2'nd, 3 games out, and Colorado is in 3'rd, 4 games out. Arizona lost again and remains 15.5 games out in last place.

Jonathan Sanchez isn't the guy you necessarily think of as the stopper on the team, and he hasn't been great against the Dodgers in his career either but it will be up to him to put the brakes on the slump today. The Giants will have plenty of motivation against Vicente Padilla who derailed Aaron Rowand's season with that beaning in the first Giants-Dodgers series.

Brian Sabean addressed the Giants recent struggles and acknowledged that they need more speed and more LH hitters vs RH pitchers. Hey, I have a suggestion! Nate Schierholtz fills both bills!! Time to find a way for Nate to get some more PT.

Second HR in 2 days for Simmons. Klimas makes his High A debut in a career that has been plagued by injuries. Odle seems like the guy who plugs holes for the organization. He's pitching pretty well right now, though.

Cuevas is from the Bronx. If he turns out to be a hitter, we can nickname him the Bronx Bomber! Love what Wiloughby is doing. Could he do it at a higher level? Paniagua now has 15 K's in 9 IP against just 2 BB's. He seems kind of small at 5'11", 155 lbs, but I guess us Giants fans should know not to hold that against him.

Going in, last night was the first time this season I've felt like the Giants were in a must-win situation. Maybe not last night's single game, per se, but they need to win this series. Needless to say, losing last night, coupled with the way they did it was extremely dissappointing. 5 DP's plus what might be the worst baserunning gaffe of the year so far, pretty much was the reason for the loss. The DP's ended rallies before they could start and helped keep a clearly struggling Chad Billingsley's pitch count down. Tough, tough loss. Key lines:

Andres Torres- 0 for 3, BB, SB(14). BA= .272. Torres played the perfect leadoff role in the first inning working Billz for a walk, stealing 2B on Sanchez strikeout and coming home on Huff's jam shot RBI single. After that, his BA continued to slide.

Aubrey Huff- 2 for 4. BA= .296. Huff had a good game.

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 2, BB. Decent game for Panda, right? Wrong! I don't remember what inning, but it started with Burrell singling to LF. Rowand pinch ran and Pablo singled him to 3B. Rent hit a pop fly to RF, too shallow to score Gamer from 3'rd. The throw came in and Pablo took off for 2B thinking the ball was going all the way to the plate. It was cut off and he was a dead duck at 2B. He tried to stop and get into a rundown, but slipped and was tagged out before Rowand could take off for home. The Giants went from having runners at first and 3'rd with no outs to a runner at 3'rd with 2 outs and the Dodgers were well on their way to getting out of the inning. As Renteria watched the play unfold, he mouthed a profanity. Aubrey Huff grabbed his head and shook it in the dugout. Pablo came out his next AB for pinch hitter Buster Posey. That play was a microcosm of the entire game.

Travis Ishikawa- 1 for 1, 2B. Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 1. Kudos to Travis and Nate for finding ways to contribute in reserve roles. This team needs more speed and Nate has speed!

Barry Zito- 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 3.43. Not a bad game by Zito. He looked great in the first inning, but then threw way too many pitches in the next two. I don't know if this is on Zito or Bochy, but IMO, you don't let Manny beat you when Belliard is the next batter! Oh well, probably didn't matter in the end anyway.

With the loss, the Giants dropped 0.5 games behind the Dodgers into 3'rd place in the NL West with a record of 40-35. San Diego lost to the Rockies 10-6 and are 4 games ahead of the Dodgers at 45-31. Arizona lost to St Louis 6-5 to remain 13.5 games behind the leaders.

Matt Cain, who has not fared well against the Dodgers in his career, tries to right the ship tonight. A series win at this point looks awfully tough, but you never know. If the Giants can't find a way to beat their NL West rivals, they aren't going to the playoffs no matter what they do against the rest of the league. They are now 1-11 against the Dodgers and Padres, which means they are 39-24 against everybody else. If they were just .500 in those games, their record would stand at 45-30, 0.5 games ahead of the Pads in first place.

The HR's came from unlikely sources. Simmons has all the potential in the world, but hasn't figured out how to make consistent contact. Based on appearance, Weeks looks like he's about reached his ceiling now. Strong game from Fitz.

Low A Augusta Greenjackets again outslugged the Kannapolis Intimidators 13-9:

Cavan is red hot! .390 over his last 10 games. 11 for his last 20 AB's. 4 HR's in his last 3 games. .829 SLG% over his last 10 games. Great to see Chris Dominguez hit HR's in the context of all-around hitting. .381/.447/.595 over his last 10 games. Anders gets on base 6 times and is hitting .375 over his last 10. Once again, we have a great bunch of guys down in Augusta who look like they are being well coached.

Short Season Tri-City Dust Devils stirred things up to beat the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes 7-2:

Culberson is appearing on the highlights as often or more than Brandon Belt these days. Juan Perez continues to have a very impressive season. Adrianza has 3 consecutive 2-hit games and is hitting .340 over his last 10. Adrianza is a very impressive physical specimen out at SS. As long as he can hit, I think he's going to be a big leaguer. Drew Biery is swinging a hot bat, .382 over his last 10 games.

As you might imagine, no real pitching highlights in this one. Great opportunity for the lads to pad their offensive stat lines. Cavan is hitting .325 with 3 HR's in his last 10 games with HR's in consecutive games yesterday and today. Remember how he caught fire at the end of last season with Salem-Keizer? This was Tommy Joseph's 3'rd consecutive multi-hit game.

Short Season Salem-Keizer Volcanoes edged the Tri-City Dust Devils 6-5:

Still very small sample sizes in this league, so BA's and ERA's are volatile. Graham has 8 K's in 7.2 IP. Baby steps. Couture is a polished college pitcher, but USC pitchers have tended to perform better in the pros than their college record would suggest they might lately.

Still trying to sort out who's who in the AZL here. Mendoza is a 18 yo RHP. Shadle is a 20 yo drafted in round 44 out of JC ball. Walls was a 19'th round draft pick out of Troy U in 2009. I think this is his first pro experience. Walls is big- 6'5", 225.

The Padres kept on winning, 4-2 over the Florida Marlins to drop the Giants 4.5 games behind. With the Dodgers leading the Yanks they could vault over the Giants into 2'nd place 4 games back. Colorado lost to the Angels 10-3 to drop 6 games off the pace while Arizona lost to the Rays 2-1 to fall 15.5 games back. The Padres are threatening to blow the NL West race wide open.

The Dodgers come to town this week with Zito, Cain and Sanchez trying to stop the bleeding for the Giants. Facing NL West rival is an opportunity for great gains, but also a risk of getting buried.

Huge game for Neal, but good to see several of the lads get multiple hits. According to the milb.com article, Neal got a tip from teammate/pitcher Tony Pena that helped him draw a bead on the ball. After his K in the first inning, he asked Pena how he missed the ball. Pena told him that he was swinging under the pitch. He got the 3 dingers after making an adjustment. Tanner got thrown out of the game in the 8'th for arguing a balk call.

Medina's 3 run dinger was the big blow of the game. I think Cameron Lamb has a fairly high ceiling. I see a rapid rise through the system for Seth Rosin who pitched much better in college than his W-L or ERA would indicate.

Madison Bumgarner looked pretty bad in the first two innings against the Mighty BoSox, but then a funny thing happened on the way to an expected loss. He pitched a pretty darn good game! If he could somehow take back a horrible pitch to Mike Cameron(Yes Madison, you were playing at home. The BoSox had no DH. The pitcher was due up next), he might have even won the game. He might have not lost if the Giants had been able to generate some run support, but Clay Bucholz is an excellent young pitcher himself. Key lines:

Pat Burrell- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .246. Pat The Bat shows the value of getting on base. Scored a run on a force out.

Buster Posey- 0 for 3, SF. BA= .310 Buster drove in both runs with a force out and a SF.

Andres Torres- 0 for 4. BA= .276 Is Torres regressing to his career mean?

Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K's GO/AO= 10/6. That's not a terrible line by itself. After he got past the understandable initial jitters in the first two innings, his line over the next 5 was 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. I vote to give the kid another start under less intense circumstances.

With the loss, the Giants drop 3.5 games behind the NL West leading San Diego Padres who topped the Florida Marlins 2-1. The Dodgers beat the Yanks 9-4 to remain 4 games off the pace. Colorado is trailing LAA 4-2 midgame. They will either remain tied with the Dodgers or fall to 5 games out of first place. Arizona lost to TB 5-3 to fall 13.5 games behind the leaders.

The Giants still have a chance to take the series from the BoSox with Tim Lincecum going tomorrow. It will be a tough task as the BoSox are pitching Jon Lester. The Giants have tended to be handcuffed by LHP's and Lester is a good one.

Madison Bumgarner was a last minute scratch from this game and will be starting today against the mighty Red Sox in AT&T. Six relievers went 1 -2 innings each in this game and got the job done with a combined line of 9 IP, 11 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 k's.

Nice to see some bats come alive here. Starting to get excited about what Jorge Bucardo might do at higher levels. He's still more of a GB pitcher than dominant pitcher though. I'll have to think about where to rank Nick Liles if he keeps this up all season.

Short Season Salem-Keizer Volcanoes exploded over the Boise Hawks 9-1:

Love what Julio Izturis is doing. If only he was doing it as a SS! Strong game from Edwin Escobar the kid we got from Texas for......wait a minute! I can't even remember who we gave up for him. It was a rule 5 draftee who Texas wanted to keep.

All kinds of good stuff here! Willoughby does it the hard way, but the man is determined to get on base! Charles Jones makes his pro debut. Hobson probably needs to be re-assigned to a higher level. Big game for Windster who I would watch as a sleeper possibility. The Giants signed him for a sizable bonus about 3 years ago. He's progressed slowly, but has tools and can hit for a lot of power.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Brian Wilson caused another run of heart attack victims on emergency rooms and a few emergency changes of underwear, but he and the Giants hung onto a win over the Beasts from the East. What a start to the 3 game interleague series! Key lines:

Juan Uribe- 2 for 4, HR(12). BA= .273. Uribe had been slumping a bit, but came up big tonight as the cleanup hitter getting the Giants' only XBH.

Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4. BA= .276. Sandoval batting 5'th helped out in the middle of the order as the top 3 hitters didn't get on base much.

Buster Posey- 3 for 4. BA= .321. Great night for Buster to bust out of his mini-slump.

Jonathan Sanchez- 2 for 2. BA= .174. Sanchez helped himself out with an RBI. THat was the difference in the game right there. .174 is a pretty good BA for a pitcher.

Jonathan Sanchez- 5.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 4 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 3.03. This game appeared to be over early when Durty gave up 3 runs in the first inning. To his credit, he hung in there and went the next 4.1 innings holding the BoSox scoreless and allowing the Giants offense to get him back into the game.

Santiago Casilla- 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.73.

Brian Wilson- 1.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 2 K's, Save(21). ERA= 2.25. Wilson certainly has his own style of doing things. Gotta give the guy a huge amount of credit for being able and willing to come in before the 9'th inning, but then he has to make Giants fans drop a load while his does another tightrope act. Tonight it was allowing the 'Sox within 1 run then loading the bases before getting that final out. I have to confess I couldn't even watch the last batter. I went looking up minor league boxscores then came back to check out the ending. Fortunately, it was a happy one!

With the W, the Giants move to 40-32, but stayed 2.5 games behind NL West leading San Diego Padres who shut out Florida behind Clayton Richard 3-0. The Dodgers lost to CC Sabathia and the Yankees 2-1 to fall 4 games behind the Pads. Colorado is leading late in their game vs the Angels at 4.5 games behind pending the final outcome. The D'Backs' Edwin Jackson allowed 8 walks to the Tampa Bay Rays, but no hits to win 1-0. That keeps Arizona 13.5 games off the Padres' pace.

The Giants send Joey Martinez to the mound to face the mighty Red Sox tomorrow then Tim Lincecum goes on Sunday giving the Giants a reasonable chance to win the series.

A bright spot in Crawford's season so far, OBP= .351. He's getting on base despite the relatively low BA. Maday was a GB machine. GB pitchers will tend to have a higher BABIP as balls randomly find their way through the IF, but if they can keep it on the ground, and avoid BB's, they can limit the damage quite nicely.

Mario Rodriguez has been the most consistently effective pitcher for the Volcanoes so far. Concepcion maybe isn't quite ready for this level? Good to see Julio Izturis off the a good start. He's another guy who seems to understand the role of getting on base in utilizing speed on the basepaths. You can't steal first base!!

Willoughby keeps it going! Hobson tore the cover off the ball for Appalachian State. This is too low a level for him, but he maybe a sleeper draft pick. Paniagua's line not too impressive until you get the the K's. Bradley pitched a dominant 2 innings too. Dunnington looks like the closer for AZL Giants.

DSL Nats beat the Giants 5-2:

Marvin Barrios- 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.13.

Barrios is one of two international bonus babies to keep an eye on in the DSL.

Matt Cain is on my Savvy Vets fantasy baseball team. So is Justin Verlander and Tommy Hanson. This is a very bad week for Savvy Vets pitchers. I'm going to say that is the reason for Cain's uncharacteristic bad start today against the Houston Astros. The bullpen managed to stop the bleeding, and the offense made a valiant effort at coming back. In the end, it was too little, too late. Key lines:

Edgar Renteria- 2 for 5. BA= .346.

Pat Burrell- 1 for 4, HR(6). BA= .244. As long as he keeps hitting the longball, he's doing what he was hired to do.

Aaron Rowand- 3 for 3, 2B, HBP. BA= .231. Aubrey Huff wins the Gamer title for this game as he was hit twice.

Matt Cain- 2.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 2 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.72. Maybe the last game was still bothering him? Maybe it's just because he's on my fantasy team and all my fantasy team's pitchers are getting shelled this week? Hope it's out of his system and next game is better.

Giants Bullpen- 5.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 4 K's.

With the loss, the Giants remained 2.5 games behind the first place Padres who lost to the Rays 5-3. Colorado and LA are still playing as of the writing of this post.

The Giants come home to a special, but very tough, 3 game set against AL East powerhouse Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox are relying more on pitching and defense this year, but they stlll have a lineup that puts the Giants' offense to shame. It will a challenge to win even one game of the series and will require the Giants pitchers to dig deep.

The thing I like about Willoughby is he seems to understand the importance of getting on base in order to utilize his speed. Maybe he can become what I once dreamed of Marcus Sanders becoming? THis is Josh Lopez' 4'th season in the AZL. He's 21 yo. Rafael Martinez gets the promotion to the states after 4 years in the DSL.

Barry Zito had one of those awful starts that, thankfully, have been rare for him this year. That is pretty much the story of the game as the Giants offense was not up to overcoming the 5 run hole that Zito dug. Key lines:

Andres Torres- 2 for 4, 2B, 3B, BB. BA= .284 Just when it looked like this guy's run might be petering out, he comes up with another great game.

Edgar Renteria- 3 for 4. BA= .343. If he can stay healthy, Rent should be a contributor. Looks like Buster Posey may be the odd man out here?

The loss drops the Giants to 39-31, 2.5 games behind the division leading Padres who edged the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4. The Giants managed to stay 1.5 games ahead of the Dodgers who dropped their 5'th straight game to SoCal rival Angels 2-1. Meanwhile, Colorado topped the BoSox 8-6 keeping them 4 games behind the leaders and moving them into a tie with the Dodgers for 3'rd place. Arizona is battling the Yankees to a 5-5 tie late in their ballgame.

Matt Cain tries to salvage a series win for the Giants against the Astros as well as a split for the road trip in a day game tomorrow.

This is a decidedly younger S-K team than we've seen in the past and it may show on the field. One example is Graham and Couture. Graham has a much higher ceiling, but Couture is a polished college pitcher from the Pac 10.

Rohlinger's line tells you something about the level of competition here, LOL! Windster is repeating the AZL. He's a big time power potential, but needs to make more consistent contact. Mendoza is an 18 yo DSL graduate. I'll have to look up Dunnington's pedigree. OMG! I just noticed that Brett Tomko was the A's pitcher who gave up all 4 Giants runs including Rohlinger's 3 HR's. Wow!! Level of competition! LOL!

WIth the W, the Giants move to 39-30 staying 1.5 games behind the Padres who beat Tampa Bay 2-1. I'm tellin' ya, the Padres are for real!! The Dodgers blew a 3 run lead to the Angels and lost their 4'th straight against their SoCal rivals to fall 3 games behind the Padres and 1.5 games behind the GIants. Colorado remained 4 games behind the leaders with a 2-1 win over the Boston Red Sox. The D'Backs fell 14 games off the pace with a 9-3 loss to the Yankees.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Pill is hitting .380 with 3 HR's over his last 10 games. Bum got off to a shaky start allowing 2 runs in the first inning, but was dominant for the next 6.2 innings. Those K's look like the Bum from Augusta! I'm guessing he's not too far away from a call up.

Second 3-hit game in a row for Ford. Ambort is hitting .333 over his last 10 games. Thomas Neal, who has been missing from the lineup for a few games appeared as a PH. Tim Alderson was the winning pitcher for Altoona with a line of 7 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. Alderson has a record of 6-3 with a 4.50 ERA for Altoona so far this year.

High A The Cal League is off for their All-Star break until Thursday 6/24. The Giants won the first half Northern Division which guarantees them a playoff spot. We'll see if Brandon Belt get promoted to AA after the break. Lake Elsinore won the South Division first half.

I'm happy to report that my man, Ricky Oropesa, was named to BA's second team All-America team for 2010. He was one of just 16 underclassmen out of a total of 48 players named to the 3 A.A. teams. A big shout out to Ricky for this accomplishment!

Ricky is spending the summer playing in the Cape Cod League. This is an amateur league heavily scouted by professional teams because they use wood bats which may give scouts a better feel for how they will perform in the pros. Ricky is off to an excellent start hitting .304 with 2 HR's including an extra inning 3 run walk-off blow for his team, the Chatham Anglers.

Ricky's mom tells me that he is not at all afraid of wood bats, in fact, has always liked hitting with wood. Go Ricky!!

The Giants offense unleashed the pent up frustration of the last two games and overcame a poor start by Jonathan Sanchez with the help of some relievers who have struggled recently. Key lines:

Freddy Sanchez- 2 for 5, HR(1). BA= .333. Freddy's HR off the LF foul pole was the key hit of the game giving the Giants a 6-3 lead and an sense that maybe they could exorcise the demons that had bedeviled them the first two games of the series.

Aubrey Huff- 2 for 4, HR(12), BB. BA= .307.

Pat Burrell- 1 for 4, HR(5). BA= .248. I believe this is Burrell's second HR with the Giants. I have to say I'm still getting used to thinking of him as a Giant.

Edgar Renteria- 2 for 3, 2B, 2 BB. BA= .337. When healthy, Rent has contributed. Bochy has a challenge in apportioning playing time here.

Jonathan Sanchez- 2.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 5 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 2.90. As usual, nothing wrong with Sanchez' stuff here. He appeared to lose focus after Uribe's error and never got it back. He's going to have to learn to block out those distractions and just trust his stuff if he wants to take his game to the next level.

Denny Bautista- 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.89. Bautista had scuffled a couple of times. The W today was well deserved as he put out the fire and then held the Jays at bay for the next two innings.

Guillermo Mota- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K. ERA= 2.84. Another reliever who has scuffled. This was a clutch performance today eating up another two innings and keep the Jays from getting back into the game.

The win enabled the Giants to keep pace with the Padres who pounded the Orioles 9-4. The Pads record stands at 40-29, 1.5 games ahead of the Giants who are at 38-30. Meanwhile, the BoSox complete a series sweep of the Dodgers in Fenway , so the Giants move 0.5 games ahead of the Dodgers into second place in the NL West. Colorado lost to the BrewCrew to fall 4 games behind the Pads while Arizona lost to Detroit and their former pitcher Max Scherzer 3-1 to fall 12.5 games back of the leaders.

Although the first two games were quite disheartening, and both winnable for the Giants, they have to feel good about avoiding the brooms. Winning 1 game of a series is infinitely better than getting swept. The Giants now head to Houston where they owned the 'Sros in the opening series. With the weekend bookended by off days, the Giants will skip the #5 starter and replay the opening series with Timmy, Zito and Cainer with Timmy going against Roy Oswalt in the opener.

Belt's HR was a high fly over the RF "monster" at The Diamond. It probably would have been a routine flyout in most any other park. Nicholson left the game early when a line drive through the box glanced off his right elbow. It was caught by Adrianza who doubled up the runner who was on 2B to end the inning. Nicholson went down and took awhile getting back up. I thought it might have hit him in the head. He still appeared to be in some pain as he came off the field. Had to leave the game to attend to family responsibilities before Quinowski pitched. I would have liked to get a look at him.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

This will be short as the Giants offense failed to make a showing today. Matt Cain pitched like an ace for 7.2 innings, got no run support and then gave up a 2 out walk followed by a HR to Aaron Hill and that was the ballgame. Key lines:

San Diego lost to the Orioles while the Dodgers were losing again to the BoSox so the Giants remain 1.5 games behind and in 3'rd place in the NL West. Colorado edged Milwaukee 8-7 to move to 3 games behind. Arizona won also to get to 12.5 games off the pace.

Jonathan Sanchez tries to be the stopper in game 3 vs Shaum Marcum, a good pitcher without a lot of velocity. He uses guile and command to keep hitters off balance, type of pitcher that tends to give the Giants fits. Come to think of it, just about any kind of pitcher tends to give the Giants fits!

I finally made it to a Cal League game last night. Wouldn't you know it was a blow out game that the San Jose Giants lost? I wasn't sure I was going until the last minute, and went alone. I arrived at the ballpark just as the game was starting due to heavy traffic in the 15 Fwy south of Corona. I bought my ticket at the ticket window and got Section 101, Row C, Seat 4 directly behind home plate. I got to my seat just as the bottom of the first inning was starting. The Giants had gone down 1,2,3 in the top of the first, so I didn't miss much.

Justin Fitzgerald was on the mound for the Giants. He's a big burly kid who looks like a power pitcher. His fastball ranged from 88-92 MPH on the stadium radar gun, which I believe was pretty close to accurate. At it's best, the fastball seemed to have some sink to it, but Justin's command was off a bit. He also showed a nice, tight curveball that he was able to throw for strikes. He threw a changeup less often and it really didn't make much of in impression. Fitz labored through 5 innings with runners seemingly on base the whole time. He didn't really get hit hard except for an opposite field HR by LH hitting 3B Vince Belnome on a pitch that looked like some kind of hanging offspeed offering. I'm inclined to believe it was a change that stayed up. Fitzgerald certainly has major league size. I'd call his stuff borderline, or fringy. He just needs to keep pitching to see if he can sharpen up his command and polish up his secondary stuff.

The Giants offense as pretty much non-existant against LE starter Anthony Bass. Brandon Belt led off the second inning by lacing a double that skipped by the RF and banged off the tall RF "monster" wall. The ball came straight back at the fielder who turned and fired to 2B. From where I was sitting, it looked like the throw beat Belt, but the ump called him safe. The Storm infielders and manager argued vehemently to no avail. Culberson followed with a sharply hit single through the left side of the IF with Belt stopping at 3B. That was the only hint of a threat by the offense all night.

I looked up Storm SP Bass' stats. He doesn't look as historically dominant as he looked last night, but he sure appeared to have big league stuff. FB ran 91-94 MPH with a variety of offspeed secondary pitches. Except for Belt and Culberson, he seemed to have the Giants hitters intimidated. They were flailing at pitches way outside the strike zone all night.

Brian Anderson followed Justin Fitzgerald to the mound for the Giants. He did not look good at all. Max velocity I saw was 87 MPH. He seemed to be mostly throwing some type of sinking offspeed pitch, either a splitter variant or a knuckle curve. I'd guess some type of splitter from the looks of the pitches. He got 4 outs on hard hit balls right at OF's, then the law of averages caught up with him. He left the game with 1 out in the 7'th, 1 run in and the bases loaded.

Jason Stoffel relieved Anderson and immediately ran into bad luck. Stoffel had a good fastball, 91-94 MPH with a lot of armside run. The first batter was late on his swing but shot a hard grounder that was helped by the velocity of the pitch right between Culberson and Belt. The next two batters hit bloopers that fell short of the OF's to plate the rest of Anderson's runners plus one of Stoffel's. Jason then settled down to strike out the next two batters and get out of the inning, all with the hard running fastball.

Stoffel got the first batter out in the 8'th inning, but then his stuff started deteriorating. His fastball, which started out mostly 92-94 MPH, dropped to 91 MPH and then to 90. It's a good fastball, but not enough to get hitters out as a single pitch at 90-91 MPH. With a runner on base, Cody Decker hit an absolute bomb way beyond the 425 ft sign in left-center field. Stoffel walked the next batter and that was it for him. Kyle Woodruff cleaned up by getting the last two Storm batters of the game.

Stoffel has a long way to go, IMO. His fastball is good, but not nearly good enough to be a one-pitch pitcher in the majors, even as a closer. He needs to forget about closing for awhile, get stretched out to build his stamina and to learn at least one viable secondary offering.

Brandon Belt is a big man. He appears to be quite athletic for his size with a well-proportioned body. He and Culberson were the only Giants hitters who did not appear to be overmatched by Bass. He had a lot of balls hit his way on defense and appeared smooth and quick as a fielder. He made two very nice throws to 2B on grounders to get the lead runner, but in both instances the return throws were too late for the DP, likely because the balls weren't hit that hard in the first place. He did come up empty on a dive for a ball hit about a foot inside the bag down the line. Brandon appeared to shake himself up a bit on the play, maybe knocking the wind out of himself when he belly-flopped the ground. I thought maybe JT might have had that ball, but then that's what I tend to think about almost every ball hit down the first base line!

Charlie Culberson has great size for a second baseman. I thought his actions on the field looked a bit non-fluid, but he made all the plays as far as I could see. He certainly looked confident at the plate, working the counts and drilling two hits through the left side of the infield. On his SB, it looked like a good throw from the catcher would have had him by a mile, but it was way high and Charlie was able to slide in under the tag. In fact, I don't think a tag was even attempted as the fielder had to jump to keep the throw from sailing into CF.

If baseball success was based on how good you look in a uniform, James Simmons is, by far, the best prospect on the team. Holy moly, does that guy look like a ballplayer? Unfortunately, athleticism does not necessarily hit a baseball, and that's a pretty darn important part of the game. He sure gets down the line to first base fast, though! Simmons also showed off his speed in the OF by streaking all the way into LF and almost colliding with Fairley on a ball Wendell caught up against the wall just to the right of straightaway LF.

Speaking of Wendell Fairley, he looked good in LF covering a lot of ground and going back on two balls he caught at the wall that I don't think every LF would have caught. He looked a bit lost at the plate though, and appeared to be taking a lot of defensive slappy swings. Bass made him look helpless in his first AB in which he struck out.

Adrianza is a good looking player at SS, but I didn't see him make many plays. Peguero was the DH. Biery didn't look good at the plate at all.

That's about it for scouting reports. I'm planning to go back tonight with my wife and will post any further observations tomorrow.

I'll just add that if you go to a minor league game and sit anywhere other than behind the backstop screen, you'd best take a glove and pay attention to the game. One guy fairly far up the the stands, and not that far up the first base line from the screeen got skulled right on the frontal top of his head by a ball that shot off the bat of a RH batter on a late swing. He held his head in his hands for quite awhile while stadium staff attended to him. He finally walked out without assistance, but looked a bit dazed. I hope he got checked out at an emergency room and is OK.

Rough start for most of the kids, especially Lofton and Jurica who went a combined 0 for 8 at the top of the order. Rogers didn't impress last season, so not sure why he's the lead starter here. Downing was the final round draft pick last year, but reportedly has a heater that gets to 94 MPH.

Barry Zito pitched a pretty good game against 8 of the 9 hitters in the Jays' lineup. Unfortunately, he couldn't get Juan Encarnacion out. The Jays' third baseman drove in all 3 runs with a single and a HR which was enough to beat Pablo Sandoval's bases loaded walk and RBI ground out. Key lines:

Pablo Sandoval- 0 for 3, BB. BA= .279. Pablo drove in both the Giants runs, but not in typical Panda fashion. He drew a bases-loaded walk in the first inning and had an RBI ground out in the 6'th.

Buster Posey- 0 for 4. We knew Buster wasn't going to hit .450 forever, but since the beginning of the Oakland series, he's just 2 for 23. He left 4 runners stranded tonight including 3 in the first inning when Brandon Morrow couldn't seem to find the strike zone and it looked like the GIants had a chance to knock him out early. Still, Buster needs a chance to play through this. His overall line still looks good despite the mini-slump.

The loss left the Giants at 37-29, 1.5 games off the pace set by the Padres who moved back into sole possession of first place with a 3-2 win over the hapless Orioles, coupled with the Dodger's 10-6 loss to the BoSox The Rockies stayed in 4'th place, 4.5 games behind the leaders with a 2-0 win over the BrewCrew behind the pitching of Jason Hammel. The Rockies got bad news when they learned that SS Troy Tulowitzki has a broken left wrist and was put on the DL, probably for 6 weeks. Meanwhile, last place Arizona lost to Detroit 7-5 and is now 13.5 games behind the Pads.

The Giants send their ace, Matt Cain, to the mound vs Toronto's Jesse Litsch to try to regain their momentum today.

Hinshaw's line for his last 10 games is 1-1, 1.38, 13 IP, 9 BB, 15 K's. Still walking too many but otherwise pitching great. This was Pucetas' first appearance since June 1 when he got pounded for 8 runs in 1.2 IP. Our old friend Scott Munter got the start for Portland and threw 2 shutout innings as the start of a reliever relay for the Beavers. He's pitching quite well for Portland: 2-1, 2.33, 38.2 IP, 11 BB, 34 K's, GO/AO= 2.76. Don't be shocked to see him in the Padres' bullpen at some point.

AA Binghampton Mets made a single run in the first inning stand up for a 1-0 win over the Richmond Flying Squirrels:

Nothing to see here as Feliz Romero, a 30 yo minor league journeyman got the start for the Squirrels.

Several very interesting names to watch here ranging from international bonus baby RaffyRod to a couple of high ceiling international pitchers, Edward Concepcion and Edwin Escobar(acquired from Texas) to 2010 draftees Seth Rosin and Jurica. 2009 draftee Matt Graham, who I have high hopes for will make his pro debut too.

Bacci, looks like you were right about Downs getting sent down. Steve Holm is swinging a hot bat hitting .400 over his last 10 games. Will Andrew Romo join his bro in the SF pen soon? Will Sergio's bro replace him?

The Giants offense got back on track by scoring 6 runs and let the pitching do it's thing. The result was an expected, but much needed W over their likely easiest interleague opponent. BTW, it looks like the Giants have a legitimate middle of the order to go with a legitimate top of the order. Good times! Key lines:

Aubrey Huff- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(11). Huff Baby!!! A .305/.396/.541 line is one no middle of the order hitter would be ashamed of. If there are any doubters left, look up his season line for 2008. More than that, Huff is having the time of his life. He absolutely loves being on this team. Said it's the best thing that's ever happened to him in baseball, or something to that effect. Most Bochy critics tend to focus only on his in-game management and his supposed hatred of young players(although there is a wealth of evidence that he gives young players as much or more chances as any manager, especially of a contending team). What they don't focus on is the player's attitudes which appears to make a difference in on-field performance.

Juan Uribe- 2 for 3, 2B, HR(11), BB. Another guy who seems to be having the time of his life. Man I don't know what his problem was in ChiTown, but he's been nothing but wonderful here in SF. Not the first player you would think of as a cleanup hitter, but look at this line: .289/.355/.500 with the 11 HR's! Again, if you are a doubter, look up his line from last year's full season and remember he was considerably better than that in the second half.

Brian Wilson- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(18). Wilson is becoming a throwback to the days of Goose Gossage, Greg "Moon Man" Minton and Gary Lavelle when a closer would come into the game in the 7'th or 8'th inning and bring it on home, not that I expect him to be entering any games in the 7'th inning any time soon, but you'd have to think about it in a must win, last day of the season or 7'th game of a playoff or WS type situation. Brian Wilson is a stud!! Speaking of which.....what's with him learing at that girl in the stands in that "There's Magic Inside" TV ad?

With the W, the Giants kept pace with the Dodgers, one game back, who beat Cincy 6-2. The Dodgers moved into first place in the NL West by 0.5 games as the Padres lost to Toronto and Ricky Romero 7-1. Thank goodness the Giants don't have to face Romero this weekend! The Rockies and D'backs both lost as they remain in 4'th and 5'th place respectively.

The Giants now go on the road to Toronto and Houston. Not sure why they are playing Houston so often, but I'm not complaining. Toronto will be a big challenge. Thank God we have the heart of our rotation going in that one. Toronto might just be the most underrated team in baseball right now. They just have the misfortune of playing in the toughest division in baseball. The Giants will be doing well to avoid getting swept there. They should continue to own Houston so anything less than 3-3 on the road trip will be a disappointment.

Nova is a 6'3", 190 lb 18 yo RHP. A dominant 4 innings from bonus baby Barrios, a 17 yo listed at 6'3", 145lbs. Yikes! I was 6'3", 145 lbs when I was 17 yo and I looked like I came out of a concentration camp, or that guy who Charles Atlas used to rescue in those old ads in the Sporting News!

This one will be short. There are some games your team is just not destined to win. It would not have mattered if Todd Wellemeyer was pitching tonight, or Jonathan Sanchez or Tim Lincecum, or any other Giants pitcher. It is just highly unlikely that they would have won under any circumstances. Rookie Jake Arrieta shut the Giants down on just 3 hits, one being Panda's HR and the O's won 4-1. Key lines:

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 4, HR(6). That's if for the offense. It!!

Joe Martinez- 6/1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 2 K's, GO/AO= 12/4. Martinez pitched about as well as you would expect a #5 starter to pitch. He never gave up a bunch of runs. The Orioles kind of pecked at him until they had 4 runs. With #5 starters, you hope your team will back them up with some runs often enough to steal a W about 1/3-1/2 of the games they pitch. It wasn't happening tonight!

With the L, the Giants lost the ground they made up on the Padres and Dodgers in yesterday's games. They are now 1.5 games behind the Padres and 1 game behind the Dodgers. Colorado and Arizona both lost to remain in 4'th and 5'th place respectively.

Timmy goes up against Baltimore's version of a ace tomorrow afternoon in a game the Giants should win. The offense will have to perform better than they did tonight, though.

Lots of nice looking lines tonight. Particularly nice to see the young guys, Culberson and Fairley coming along nicely. Eddy Martinez-Esteve was apparently picked up by the Mariners organization and went 1 for 4, BB for the Mavs tonight.

The Giants, right now, are a team very close to hitting on all cylinders. Tonight the offense jumped out to an early commanding lead and Jonathan Sanchez put on a nice display of stuff to cruise to the W. Key lines:

Pat Burrell- 2 for 3, HR(3). BA= .252. Batting .333 over his last 10 games as a Giant. 2'nd dinger in 4 games.

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .282.

Eli Whiteside- 0 for 1, 3 BB. BA= .284.

Jonathan Sanchez- 7.2 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 2.78. I tuned in the the 7'th innning. Sanchez had the stuff tonight: A darting 91-92 MPH FB, a sharp slurvy breaking ball, and a wicked, wicked split-change that tailed down and away from RH batters. This guy is on the verge of being one of THE dominant pitchers in the game! He might actully have the best stuff on the team. On this team, that's saying a whole lot!

With the W tonight, the Giants gained a full game on the division leading Padres who lost to the Blue Jays 6-3. The Giants also gained a half game on the idle Dodgers and are now tied for second place just 0.5 games behind the Pads. Colorado and Arizona were both idle too.

Joe Martinez gets the start tomorrow. His last game for Fresno was a good one. Hopefully the Giants offense will continue to provide plenty of run support.

Matt Cain didn't have his best stuff today, but he showed what an ace does under those circumstances by gutting out 7 innings and allowing just 1 run. Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe broke out back-to-back dingers to give Cainer the lead just in time for the W, and Huff went yard again to give the bullpen some breathing room. Key lines:

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 2, 2 BB. The Giants have played 62 games this season and I'm guessing that this was the 60'th different lineup Bochy has put out there. Panda did his job in the 2 hole today by getting on base 3 times and scoring ahead of both of Huff's dingers.

Aubrey Huff- 2 for 4, 2 HR's(10), OF Assist. Huff showed off some prodigious power today. Neither HR was a splash hit, but they were both to right-center, especially the second which left the yard just to the right of the 421 ft. sign.

Juan Uribe- 1 for 4, HR(10). Uribe hit 4'th today again. Love it!

Matt Cain- 7 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 2.05.

Santiago Casilla- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K's. ERA= 0.96. Casilla was an unsung hero today getting the Giants out of a 2 out bases loaded jam in the 8'th when the lead was just 2 runs and then hanging in there after a leadoff single by Rajai Davis to finish the game and give Brian Wilson a breather, although Wilson did warm up twice.

With the W today, the Giants gained a full game on both teams ahead of them in the NL West standings. The Padres lost to the Mariners and Felix Hernandez 4-2 while the Angels held on for a 6-5 win to sweep the Choking Dogs. A big thank you to the Angels!! Colorado knocked the Toronto Blue Jays around 10-3 while Arizona beat St. Louis 7-5. The tightened up NL West standings have the Pads in first place at 37-26. The Dodgers are 1 game behind at 36-27. The Giants remain in 3'rd place, but move up to 1.5 games behind the Pads at 35-27. The Rockies sit 4 games out of first at 33-30, and the D'Backs bring up the rear 11.5 games behind the leaders at 26-38.

The Giants now take the Baltimore Orioles, 3 games in SF, Orange and Black vs Black and Orange. I've had soft spot in my heart for the O's ever since they swept the Dodgers in the 1966 World Series, but I won't be rooting for them this week! The O's currently have one of the worst W-L records in baseball, but they have some good players. A couple of their young pitchers could break out at any time, and the Giants have a history of having pitchers with terrible ERA's suddenly get well against them.

I like where the Giants are right now. They seem to have figured out a pretty good 1-4 in the lineup. Posey looks like he may be cooling off, but maybe Pat Burrell or Bengie Molina will get hot and pick up the slack? Or maybe Nate will eventually get another chance to play? At any rate, the offense seems to be in a pretty good groove of scoring 4-6 runs/night which gets it done most games with the Giants pitching. They will obviously have to find a way to beat the Padres and Dodgers down the road and they will need a 5'th starter to give them chances to win. If they can do that, they are in a great position to make the playoffs. After that, their pitching can take them a long ways.

Wow! All kinds of things happening here. I don't recall seeing this combination of high BA with doubles power, OBP and speed in any player before, let alone a first baseman. I am way past ready to see Belt promoted to AA and see him challenged a bit there. Certainly the Cal League pitchers don't see capable of making him swing at their pitches. Culberson had a huge game with 6 RBI's. He has a line of .325/.364/.675 over his last 10 games. His SLG% for the season is over .500 at .509. Fairley is still not hitting for any power, but it's nice to see him getting hits on a steady basis. This game brought his BA way up. He's hitting .353 over his last 10 with a .450 OBP. From Fitzgerald's ERA, you can see that he's pitched very well up until this game.

Yet another dominant start for Bucardo who is having a great first half of the season. In addition to the stingy ERA, he has 70 K's in 74.1 IP, with a GO/AO= 1.81. Bucardo's GO/AO is down slightly, but his K's are up making me wonder if he's throwing both a 4 seam and 2 seam fastball.

Barry Zito curveball was dazzling. The Giants offense, especially the top of the order, kept purring. Guillermo Mota and a couple of other relievers tried to blow another late lead, but this time Bochy called for Brian Wilson while the Giants still had the lead with 1 out in the 8'th inning, and he came through with his 17'th save, this one very hard earned. The Giants came away with their 7'th win in their last 10 games. Key lines:

Andres Torres- 2 for 4, 2B(19). BA= .297.

Juan Uribe- 2 for 3, BB. BA= .291. It looks like Uribe has taken over the cleanup spot in the batting order. BTW, where is Renteria going to play when he comes back?

Aubrey Huff- 1 for 4, 3B. BA= .300. Huff played RF with Torres in CF and Burrell in LF.

Pat Burrell- 2 for 3, BB. BA= .238. Nice line for Burrell even though he was not involved in any of the run production as Buser Posey showed he is human by leaving 7 runners on base.

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 3, HR(5), BB. BA= .280. Vintage Panda blast. Sheets made him look bad in Oakland with high fastballs. He tried it again here and Pablo blasted an opposite field job to left-center.

Barry Zito- 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 3.10. Zito had a great curveball tonight and kept getting stronger as the game went on until giving up Rosales' blast in the 7'th.

Guillermo Mota- 0 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 0 K. This time Bochy took him out with the lead still intact.

Brian Wilson- 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(17). ERA= 2.28. Bochy called for Wilson with 1 out in the 8'th with the bases loaded after Casilla and Affeldt failed to put out the fire. That decision probably won the game for the Giants! Yes, I understand the Wilson can't go more than 1 inning every game!

The win kept the Giants on pace, 2.5 games behind the Padres who beat Cliff Lee and the Mariners 7-1. It also kept them 2.5 games ahead of the 3'rd place Rockies who blanked Toronto behind Jason Hammel 1-0. The Dodgers fell a game behind the Padres with a 4-2 loss to the Angels. Arizona remained in last place 12.5 games behind the Padres with a 7-2 win over the Cardinals.

Matt Cain goes for the sweep against the A's tomorrow vs Vin Mazzaro. He just needs the Giants offense to keep doing what it's been doing.

After giving up a first inning run, Tim Lincecum settled down and got his mojo back and the Giants offense continued to purr along as the Giants took a first step toward avenging their sweep at the hands of the A's back in Oakland a couple of weeks ago. Key lines:

Andres Torres- 0 for 2, 2 BB. OBP= .392!

Freddy Sanchez- 2 for 4. BA= .337. The top of the order was doing their job!

The Dodgers got pounded by the Angels 10-1, so the Giants move to 2.5 games behind. The Padres scored 2 in the bottom of the 9'th to edge the Mariners 4-3 to move into a first place tie with the Dodgers. Colorado won a rain shortened game vs Toronto and sits 5 games off the pace and 2.5 games behind the Giants. Arizona lost to the Cards 5-2 and continues to dwell in the cellar 12.5 games back.

Barry Zito tries to keep it going against Ben Sheets who darn near threw a no- hitter at the GIants in Oakland.

Most of Fresno's lineup has MLB experience. Bond continues to be an OBP machine. Nice to see Sosa get the start. It was Joe Martinez' turn, but it looks like he's getting the call to SF to replace Wellemeyer.

Great game by Ford. Now he needs to have a few more of these. Losing pitcher Sisco stands 6'10" while winner Ludovicus Van Mil stands 7'1". Are these two the tallest winning/losing pitchers in one game in history? I'm guessing they are!

The Giants offense did their job today, but the pitching was plagued by injury and ineffectiveness and the Giants lost a game they probably should have won ending up with a split of the 4 game series with the Cincinnati Reds. Key lines:

Andres Torres- 1 for 3, 2 BB, S. BA= .296 OBP= .390. You can't ask for much more from a leadoff hitter. On base 3 times, his teammates failed to get him home.

Aaron Rowand- 1 for 3, HR(6), BB. BA= .227. Hopefully this is the start of better hitting from both Bengie and Gamer.

Todd Wellemeyer- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. Apparently Wellemeyer had some good stuff going before he pulled his quad. Looks like he'll be on the shelf for awhile. Look for Joe Martinez to get the first shot at his #5 starter role.

Santiago Casilla- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 H, 3 K's. ERA= 1.17. Casilla looks like a major contributor, but he can't do it all. I would look for him to be moving into the regular setup role.

The loss dropped the GIants 3.5 games behind the idle Dodgers and 2.5 games behind the Pads who split a DH with the Mets. Colorado dropped to 6 games off the Dodgers pace with a 5-4 loss to Houston. Arizona went 12.5 games behind the lead with a 11-7 loss to ATL.

The Giants come home for the weekend to try to avenge the sweep the A's laid on them in Oakland a couple of weeks ago. The Giants will throw their top 3 starters at the A's, but will have to score some runs this time.

About Me

I grew up in Northern California near the Napa Valley. I got interested in baseball and the Giants by listening to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons broadcast Giants games on KSFO. My early heros were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and a guy you don't always think of, Jim Ray Hart. When I got older and was in school and early career, I didn't have time to follow as closely, but I tried to look up their boxscores each day and catch an occasional game on TV. One habit I got into at an early age was looking up the stats of their minor league players in The Sporting News. That became more difficult as TSN moved away from comprehensive baseball coverage. Now, of course, technology and affluence has changed all that. The internet is teaming with farm system/minor league information as well as college and high school baseball. Satellite TV enables me to get most of the Giants games on TV. I'm married with 2 wonderful daughters, who like to watch games with me.